


Life in Pet Years

by Niix



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Happy Ending, Lots of time skips, Moicy, Pet Ownership - Freeform, ends post current timeline, i'm bad at this tag thing, moira leaves talon for mercy (implied), not super cohesive plot, starts when moira is part of overwatch, the gays were here
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-06
Updated: 2018-03-06
Packaged: 2019-03-27 15:40:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,133
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13883922
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Niix/pseuds/Niix
Summary: This is a fluffy piece about Moira's and Angela's pets. Inspired by "My Life in Dog Years" by Gary Paulsen. All these animals are immortal as far as i'm concerned, Moira can figure out the science.





	1. R27 / Mr. Kerfuffle

Moira isn’t sure what she’s supposed to do with this particular rabbit. He has three legs and a congenital disorder that makes him useless as a lab animal, even if that’s exactly what he’s supposed to be. The only thing Moira can say to his credit is that he’s… friendly. He follows her around and lets her pick him up without a fuss. 

She’s taken to leaving him outside his hutch when she’s alone in the lab and all she’s doing is working on papers. He’ll sit quietly at her feet, often munching happily on whatever treat Moira gives him that day. 

Moira tells herself she buys him treats because it’ll add important diversity to his nutrition. She ignores the feeling of pleasure she gets when she manages to get him something he eats with gusto. 

One day, she’s reading papers at her desk when Angela Ziegler enters. There is a quiet click as the airlock in the lab disingages that brings her and R27 to attention before Ziegler walks in, paper in hand. 

Before Moira can say anything, R27 bounds lopsidedly out from beside Moira’s feet and towards Angela, who stoops down and picks him up with an ease that tells Moira she’s done it before. Completely ignoring Moira, Ziegler coos at the rabbit, “How is my favorite, Mr. Kerfuffle?” 

_Mr. Kerfuffle?_ Moira blinks a few times, watching in amazement as Ziegler nuzzles the rabbit’s nose with her own before putting him down. He promptly curls up next Ziegler’s feet. _Traitor._

Angela sets the paper down on Moira’s desk and asks, in that weirdly sweet manner she has, “Would you mind looking over it, Dr. O’Deorain?”

Moira starts to nod dumbly, still processing what she just saw. “You called R27 Mr. Kerfuffle.”

Angela gives her a look, “Well, I couldn’t keep calling him R27.” Moira feels a little insulted. _What’s wrong with calling him R27?_ Angela keeps watching her then adds, “You can’t name your pets meaningless numbers, Moira.”

It’s the first time Angela has called her by her first name and, somehow, it minimizes her inexplicable embarrassment. “He’s not my pet.”

Angela lifts a delicate eyebrow. “Oh?”

Swallowing, Moira waits to see if Angela will say anything further. She doesn’t disappoint. “You know, if you don’t experiment on him, rarely put him in his hutch and, most nights, sneak him back to your quarters... he’s your pet.” 

Moira doesn’t really have an argument for that, except that she’d worried R27 would get lonely in her lab, which was currently free of other test animals. Her young coworker has never spoken so directly to her before and she’s not sure how to respond. Angela shrugs and adds, “He’s such a sweet animal, he needed a proper name.” 

Finding her balance again, Moira lets sarcasm fill her tone. “Clearly, Mr. Kerfuffle fits the bill.”

Angela blushes a little and it’s… somehow enchanting. Moira decides not to touch that thought with a hundred meter pole. “It’s cute.”

“Naturally.” She’s not sure if she’s just agreeing or being snide. 

There is an awkward bit of silence before Angela rallies and changes the topic. “Would you read over my paper? I feel like the explanation of the procedure might be lacking.” 

Moira nods her agreement and reaches for the paper. She’s not getting far on her own work, and Angela’s is always interesting. Out of the corner of her eye she watches as Angela kneels on the floor and pulls out a bag of berries, the one’s she herself recently realized are Mr. K--R27’s favorites. Her coworker hand feeds him a few while cooing about how dapper his dappled grey fur and tufted ears make him look. 

Eventually, Angela stands. Moira sincerely hopes she won’t ask for feedback immediately, as her distraction means she has read all of a paragraph. But Ziegler walks back to the door. “I’ll hear from you later?” Moira nods mutely right before Angela grins, says “thanks for letting me play with your rabbit,” and walks out. 

 

\---

 

It’s strange to her that Dr. Ziegler continues to treat her as a normal colleague. After her paper, so many people criticized her methods, her morality. She remembers the day she had reunited with Dr. Ziegler, the way their eyes had locked over the operating table as they rushed to save Mr. Shimada’s life. Moira had been used as a last minute assistant: not her usual role, but one she could tolerate when working with someone as brilliant as Ziegler… though she had no interest in admitting that out loud. After the surgery, Angela had thanked her for her assistance, then gone to her guest quarters and slept for the entirety of next day. 

That surgery, and the knowledge that Moira was employed by Overwatch through Blackwatch, had resulted in an elevated security status that allowed Dr. Ziegler to enter the sub basement laboratories that were Moira’s domain. 

Moira no longer pretended that Mr. Kerfuffle was anything other than her pet. He now had two hutches, one in the lab and one in her quarters. Moira spoiled him rotten and she had switched to calling him by Angela’s ridiculous name for him. It fit somehow and, when everything had gone to hell with her reputation, she’d found too much comfort in his company to continue calling him R27. 

Angela had been delighted to see him again, as evidenced by how thoroughly she’d cuddled him. She’d also given Moira a weird little smile upon hearing her call him Mr. Kerfuffle.

Moira hadn’t understood what the smile meant and had long forgotten the look by the next time she saw Angela Ziegler.


	2. Boop and Floop

After the fall of Overwatch, Angela buried herself in her work. She churned out papers at a speed that she would have previously thought impossible, even for her, and usually neglected her bed at home for the cot she kept in her office.

She hated to admit it, but the lovely little apartment right by the research hospital felt too empty. The were no random cheers in the halls when someone returned from a successful mission, no adrenaline rushes the few times missions did not go well, no Moira with her brilliant- if unorthodox- mind and adorable rabbit. 

Angela wondered how Moira was, had read an article about her position as Minister of Genetics in the city of Oasis. She’d wondered about Mr. Kerfuffle, who was the closest thing she had had to a pet since childhood, even though she’d always thought of him as Moira’s (even before Moira had admitted it). 

Angela lit on an idea, one she knew was maybe...definitely… a little foolish. It was also one she had no strength to ignore. Grabbing her bag, she went to the director’s office. When she asked for a few days off, he seemed genuinely happy to give them to her, chuckling “you work too much, Doctor,” as he sends her off. Angela decides it’s true. She hasn’t taken a single sick day or vacation day in the nearly three years she’s been at the hospital, though she’s hopeful that might change soon. 

With the help of a search engine and a route calculator, she makes it to the nearby animal shelter in minutes. She intends mostly to look around… and she does. She also ends up taking two animals home. One is a small cat, her fur a soft ginger colour reminiscent of Moira’s hair. The other is a rabbit with droopy ears he manages to step on as he hops towards her.

She names the cat Boop and the rabbit Floop. The shelter employee looks at her like she’s mental, but Angela doesn’t care. She looked Moira O’Deorain in the eye and named her pet rabbit Mr. Kerfuffle. As she heads to her car to buy additional pet supplies, Angela feels happier than she’s felt in recent memory. 

 

\---

 

She wonders if Winston is reevaluating his opinion of her intelligence. It’s been a year since Overwatch reformed and Winston is trying to send Angela to a symposium filled with the world’s top scientists, hosted by the ministers of Oasis. The one bump in the road is Angela’s refusal to leave her pets behind for Jesse and Ms. Song to “figure out” while she’s gone for two weeks.

After what might euphemistically be called a “debate,” it’s agreed that Angela will take her pets. She has all the permits to travel with them already. And it’s true that Overwatch can’t afford to miss out on the knowledge the symposium will provide. Angela isn’t sure why she doesn’t tell Winston about the piece of paper folded inside her formal invitation. 

_Angela,_

_I hope you’ll attend. I have a guest room already set aside for you._

_Regards,  
Moira_

_P.S. Mr. Kerfuffle would love to see you again._

The last part makes her smile. She knows Mr. Kerfuffle is getting old. That Moira still has him and specifically mentioned him in a handwritten note to Angela creates a warm feeling in her chest she can’t really describe. 

The rest of the week passes quickly and, before she knows it, Angela is on a jet to Oasis with Boop and Floop at her side.


	3. Nebula

Moira is missing Angela like crazy. She’s currently sitting in her office, staring out the window when she should be working. Floop and Mr. Kerfuffle are both sleeping in their hutch, curled around each other so tightly that it would be hard to tell them apart if they were not drastically different colors. 

Boop, on the other hand, is trying to kill Moira’s left arm to make it pay for not petting him. Moira plays with him to distract herself. She knows Angela is off on a covert mission with Overwatch and will contact her as soon as she has a chance. It doesn’t make waiting for the call any easier. 

She looks at the ring on her finger. It’s been 2 months and she still can’t believe it’s there, glinting in the sunlight. 

She never imagined she’d be married, much less married to someone as wonderful as Angela. They had become lovers when Angela had attended the symposium two years previous. It has been casual and perfect, but after Angela returned to Geneva they’d chosen to stay in regular contact. It hadn't stayed casual, to say the least.

Things had been… rocky for a while… especially when Moira came clean about her involvement with Talon, an arrangement she’d terminated with little...absolutely no guilt. Her more recent research for Overwatch and Angela’s constant championing on her behalf have both gone a long way to smoothing her relationships with Angela’s coworkers. That Moira made herself scarce and remained in Oasis also eased matters. This city of research is still her dream. Having Angela be part of it is just an amazing surprise. 

Right then, her link vibrates and Angela’s face, smooshed beside Mr. Kerfuffle’s, fills her screen. She answers before the second ring.

“Where are you?” 

Moira sits up straighter. “In my office. Have you returned to the city, love?” 

The question is answered by Angela swinging the door open. A small, open box in her hands. The smile she gives Moira is radiant and Moira feels her own lips curve in response. 

She sets the box down on Moira’s desk and Moira stares down at the-- “Did you get me a stuffed animal?” Then the ball of fur moves. 

Angela huffs indignantly. “It’s a dog!” As she says so, Boop uses his paws to stand on the edge of the box and look down at it’s occupant. When the dog jumps up and licks his face, he looks disdainfully at all of them before jumping off the desk and curling up in his favorite place, a cardboard box below the rabbit hutch. 

Moira gently picks up the dog, who proceeds to give her the same treatment it gave Boop. Moira enjoys it more than the cat did. 

Angela is talking about how she acquired the dog. “...and I couldn’t just leave her, you know. She’s such a sweetheart.”

Moira nods, smiling, knowing Angela could have just as easily found a shelter for the little dog cradled in her arms. Angela adds, “I thought you could name this one.”

“And deprive you?” Angela blushes. Not a month goes by that Moira doesn’t tease Angela about her pet naming habits. 

 

\---

 

In the end, they name the dog Nebula, after a character in a science fiction movie Moira secretly loves. That night, they curl up around each other, Nebula and Boop on the bed. Angela murmurs sleepily, “we should get more pets. We wouldn’t want any of them to get lonely.” 

Moira grins into her wife’s hair. She’ll be overrun with animals if she’s not careful. 

Somehow, the thought doesn’t bother her at all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For Czar, you made me love having pets.

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this on my phone while on the plane ride from hell. It's really just some happy fluff with animals because that's what I felt like writing. It's currently unedited, hopefully i'll remedy that in the near future but I felt like sharing it now.


End file.
